AP

Trial starts for 2009 Pit Boss Barbeque double homicide

Jury selection began Tuesday in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez for a double homicide inside a Richmond restaurant in 2009. Four men have each been charged with two counts of murder plus gang offenses for the shooting and killing of Alvaro Garcia, 23, and Intaz Ahmed, 32, on Aug. 30, 2009 at the Pitt Boss Barbeque on San Pablo Avenue. The jury will consider the case of two of the defendants, Steven Miranda, 23, and Ignacio Ruiz, 31,…

Amendment to campaign filing shows additional funds for Bates

A campaign finance amendment filed Tuesday by City Council candidate Nat Bates shows that he has received more than $32,000, far more than the $1,420 he listed in his original campaign disclosure statement on Friday. Campaign disclosure statements filed by the Chevron-funded committee Moving Forward show Bates also benefited from $90,000 on campaign mailings and billboards spent by the committee on his behalf. The amended disclosure elevates Bates to second in the list of candidates with the most funds raised…

After school music is alive at Mira Vista Elementary

When the bell rings signaling the end of the day at Mira Vista Elementary School the playground comes alive with the sounds of elementary students pouring out of their classrooms. The brown portable on the edge of campus, though, is filling up. Laden with backpacks and sweatshirts, children burst through the door, deposit their backpacks and begin pulling folded, metal contraptions — soon to be music stands — out of a box. Then the cases begin to pop open the…

Chevron backs Moving Forward coalition

The Chevron-funded campaign committee Moving Forward spent more than $100,000 in support of council candidates Gary Bell, Nat Bates and Bea Roberson between Aug. 9 and Sept. 28, campaign disclosures filed with the City Clerk show. Moving Forward’s money comes solely from a $1.2 million contribution from Chevron.

Undocumented youth see new options

More than 100 young undocumented immigrants cycled through Grace Lutheran Church in Richmond on Saturday to meet with volunteers and lawyers, and fill out applications to apply for deferred action. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is a federal program implemented over the summer that allows immigrants to apply for worker’s permits and offers safety from deportation for two years at a time. The program requires a variety of qualifications, many of which can be hard to prove. The applicants at…

Violence as a disease, and one man’s prescription for Richmond

As an advocate for non-violence, Dr. Joseph Marshall had devoted the better part of his adult life to teaching others how to answer tough questions. Questions like: How thin is the line between killing someone and turning the other cheek? What would it take for you to justify murder? Can you conquer your instincts when those instincts were shaped from years of fighting on the streets? But it wasn’t until a few years ago that he had to face the…

Friends, family remember Officer Brad Moody

Four years after the on-duty crash that ended his life, Richmond Police Officer Bradley Moody lives on in his closest family members, in friends who honor his life with tattoos, memorials, and keepsakes, in complete strangers who were given a second chance on life with his organs, in the people he worked with both in the Richmond Police Department and in the neighborhoods he patrolled. On Thursday, Brad’s mother and sister made the trip to Richmond to pay their respects…